Knowledge Rating
Using a felt sense, rate your knowledge from “definitely wrong” to “highly likely to be true.”
according to Uncertain Knowing, we need to treat our knowledge as hypothesis rather than absolute fact, but some hypotheses carry more weight than others because they’re based on better information. This pattern talks about how we can get a rapid, felt sense of how good our knowledge is.
All knowledge is not created equal. It’s all incomplete and uncertain to some degree, but a fact backed up by the scientific method is going to carry more weight than a contradicting fact you half-remember from school. To be effective, you’ll need to know what knowledge deserves your trust so you can apply it appropriately.
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If we are aware of our Intuition and other Felt Senses, we can have a fairly accurate sense of how much weight we give individual bits of our knowledge. What I suggest is that being conscious of that felt sense, and even giving it a specific rating, can help keep you honest with yourself and ultimately keep your mind flexible. Certainty bias is a real thing, and this helps keep it at bay.
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The rating system that I recommend is pretty simple and familiar to most of us. It’s not important that you actually be able to remember the number of stars for each idea in your head; it’s just a convenient communication tool. In my experience, I associate each idea more with the verbal description next to each rating. Do whatever works for you.
- ☆☆☆☆☆ — I feel pretty certain that this idea has nothing to do with reality.
- ★☆☆☆☆ — There might be a grain of truth to it, but I don’t feel like this is true.
- ★★☆☆☆ — I’m a little suspect of this idea. I’m not so sure if it’s true.
- ★★★☆☆ — I’m not sure how much I trust this idea. I haven’t really looked at it.
- ★★★★☆ — I feel pretty good about this idea. I think it’s true.
- ★★★★★ — I feel really good about this idea. I feel strongly that it’s true.
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Notice that there is no star rating for “This is absolutely true”. Even when you feel certain of what you know, there is always more to the story—Uncertain Knowing.
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Also notice that you don’t throw away knowledge that’s wrong; your brain doesn’t really do that, and you wouldn’t want it to anyway because, to paraphrase Edison, knowledge about what doesn’t work is still knowledge. Instead you, mark it with a very low certainty (zero stars) and let it be.
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Lastly, this rating system should act as a trigger for you to increase your knowledge. To be effective, you should try to be as certain about your knowledge as possible, so when you find knowledge that’s rated at three stars or lower, you should make an effort to test that knowledge (through experiment or learning) so you can either mark it as wrong or increase it’s ranking.
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Visualization: Imagine each of the pebbles in your personal universe. They’re roundish, maybe glowing a bit, like the light bulb we associate with ideas. They’re floating in space, a short distance from each other and they’re connected together with thin threads that represent the associations we make between ideas. Now, add a little pop-up bubble hovering above each one containing a 5-star rating. Automatically, they will all have a three-star rating (“I’m not sure how much I trust this idea; I haven’t really looked at it”). By doing that, you’ve just doubled the amount of information in your personal universe. As bits of your knowledge surface in everyday life, imagine that you update that rating based on your felt sense in the moment. Make a note to check on the knowledge that stays at three stars.
Therefore:
Using a felt sense, rate your knowledge on a scale from “definitely wrong” to “highly likely to be true” so you can apply it more appropriately. Work to increase the certainty of your knowledge overall through learning.
This can be done in the moment as you encounter a need for knowledge you have, or you can do this more intentionally by Rethinking what you know around various topics